WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice has not released summaries and notes from three separate interviews the FBI conducted with a South Carolina woman who alleged she was a sexual assault victim of Jeffrey Epstein and also made sexual abuse allegations against President Donald Trump, according to an NBC News analysis of the Epstein files and information provided by a source familiar with the investigation.
Those files are also not included in the unredacted collection available for members of Congress to view at the Department of Justice, according to Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee.
The woman came forward to federal law enforcement shortly after Epstein was arrested in 2019 with a lengthy description of how he assaulted her on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina when she was 13 years old in or around 1984, according to a summary of the FBI interview released by DOJ.
The FBI determined that the woman’s initial allegations against Epstein were significant enough that the FBI followed up with her for interviews on four separate dates: July 24, 2019, August 7, 2019, August 20, 2019 and October 16, 2019, according to an evidence catalog in the case against convicted Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell that was released by DOJ. The interviews with the woman were listed as part of that catalogue.
But only the FBI’s summary of the interview from July 24, 2019 is included in the Epstein files released by the Justice Department.
The July 24, 2019 interview includes allegations of repeated sexual abuse by Epstein, and does not mention allegations against Trump.
But a source familiar with the investigation confirmed to NBC News that the Epstein survivor from Hilton Head Island is the same person who made an additional allegation that she was forced into a sex act with Trump when she was 13 years old in New Jersey.
It is not clear whether the sexual abuse allegations against Trump were discussed in the other interviews that were not released by DOJ.
Asked for comment, the White House referred to a statement the Justice Department issued last month when the Epstein files were released. That Justice Department statement at the time said, “This production may include fake or falsely submitted images, documents or videos, as everything that was sent to the FBI by the public was included in the production that is responsive to the Act. Some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election. To be clear, the claims are unfounded and false, and if they have a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already.”
On Wednesday, a Justice Department spokesperson provided this statement in response to a query on the missing documents, “As we have always said, all documents responsive were produced, those not fall within one of the following categories: duplicates, privileged, part of an ongoing federal investigation.”
The alleged assault by Trump was referenced in an August 2025 document prepared by the FBI’s Child Exploitation & Human Trafficking Task Force. The document summarized claims reported to the National Threat Operations Center in which Trump was mentioned. Most of the claims were either deemed not credible or made by people who provided no contact information.
The alleged assault is separately referenced in an FBI presentation summarizing the entire Epstein case.
At the time the summary was released along with a trove of other records, on January 30, the White House responded by pointing reporters to a press release from DOJ that said, “This production may include fake or falsely submitted images, documents or videos, as everything that was sent to the FBI by the public was included in the production that is responsive to the Act. Some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election. To be clear, the claims are unfounded and false, and if they have a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already.”
The law mandating the release of the Epstein files allows DOJ to withhold records that contain victim information, child sexual abuse materials, and that would jeopardize an active federal investigation or ongoing prosecution. It prohibits withholding documents, “on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary.”
The South Carolina woman filed a lawsuit against the Epstein estate in 2019, according to court filings and Epstein files released by DOJ.
NBC News is not naming the woman. NBC News has reached out to an attorney who has previously represented the woman but has not received a response.
Independent journalist Roger Sollenberger and NPR were first to report the missing files.
The White House provided a statement to NPR about missing files related to accusations against the president: “Just as President Trump has said, he’s been totally exonerated on anything relating to Epstein,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told NPR in a statement. “And by releasing thousands of pages of documents, cooperating with the House Oversight Committee’s subpoena request, signing the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and calling for more investigations into Epstein’s Democrat friends, President Trump has done more for Epstein’s victims than anyone before him. Meanwhile, Democrats like Hakeem Jeffries and Stacey Plaskett have yet to explain why they were soliciting money and meetings from Epstein after he was a convicted sex offender.”
In an interview, Garcia said he went to view the unredacted files at the Justice Department on Monday and was not able to locate any of the missing files, even in an unredacted form — which he says is a violation of both the Epstein Files Transparency Act as well as the House Oversight Committee subpoena issued to DOJ in August 2025 for all Epstein-related materials.
“There is definitely, in my opinion, evidence of, of a cover up happening. Why are these documents missing? These documents I personally saw, I know who the survivor is, the name is redacted in the doc, in the manifest document, and there are documents missing from the same survivor that appeared to be interviews or conversations, again, appear to be with the FBI,” he said. “The FBI clearly investigated, and now those documents are gone.”
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